Weight loss support with a spiritual element. I will keep you posted on my journey in the hopes that you will join me in becoming the person God wants you to be. Don't worry about being religious. Come as you are.

Thursday, May 3, 2012

More Thoughts on Weighing

I have read several people's blogs that say they weigh themselves so that they will know if they have gained any weight or not.

How would we know if we gained weight if we didn't weigh in? Do we already know if we have gained weight or not? How do we know if we have gained weight or not unless we weigh? Do we need the scale to validate what we already know? Why can't we start correcting our poor choices without weighing?

I know I have avoided weighing because I KNEW it wouldn't be good news. How about you? Why do we need to know our weight before we straighten up? As long as we don't weigh then we can continue being out of control. Ignorance is bliss.

We need the scale's report so that we know how much we need to punish ourselves? We can choose to NOT eat poorly without the disciplinarian scale.

It's a mind game we play. It's a part of our cycle. Diet/Lose/Mess up/Overeat/Weigh/Diet/Lose/Mess up/Overeat/Weigh. The scale provides the ammunition we need. If we didn't have a set of scales, would we ever get back with our plan? We don't know how to eat today if we don't know how much we weigh?

Think of how you would feel without the scales. I know people say it is a tool. They say it is for accountability. Be that as it may, are we giving the scale too much credit for changing our behavior?

12 comments:

It is a reward if we are doing well. We already know we are doing well and the scale reinforces what we already know. We look forward to the weigh in. If we aren't doing well, we don't want to weigh because we will then be convicted for what we have been doing. People will skip weigh ins because they don't want to know. What are we thinking? Be well.

I didn't weigh myself for years and topped out at 288. That was HUGE avoidance. I presently only get weighed at official weigh-ins now. I've been on plan for almost 8 months so I'm confident that my weight will continue to go down. Once I reach goal, I'll weigh myself monthly or something...but should know if I gain weight by my food choices and how my clothing fits. I'm not keeping any "fat" clothes. If they're getting snug, I need to get right back on plan! No "head in the sand" this time around!

Now I weigh daily and use the points on a graph as data. ( I'm a scientist in real life so it's just like anything I might measure in the lab)

Before, I did not weigh often enough. Once a week at WW meetings. Then I would be over goal , so I would have to pay and that's when the slippery slope thinking started. I bargined with myself that I would "do better next week " and save money by not weighing in.

This time weighing in daily at home keeps me accountable and I report in to my Health coach once a week for accountability to a human being. So far so good. Much easier to detach from the reading and take preventive Action without slippery slope thinking. Good topic. Karen P

I'm like you Karen. I need to weigh in at home daily. The periods of time when I was gaining, I was staying off the scale. I guess we're all different and that's why there are so many different ways of doing things. And I do appreciate hearing about how others are working their programs.

Karen, E. Jane - Thanks for the input. As we find our way we must do the things that make it easier not harder and if weighing every day does that then that's what we should do. Personally I want to be able to throw the scales out the window and not be concerned about what I weigh but that may not be realistic. Thanks. Take care.

Weight loss is so variable. The balance between gaining and losing is so delicate. Typically we underestimate what we've eaten, and overestimate what we've exercised.

I weigh daily. I prefer it that way because using my special method of weighing and calculations I can tell if I'm gaining within about three days. This has allowed me to lose weight for about 17 weeks in a row so far. That, and eating the same thing every day.

I've done the "I ate badly so I'm not standing on the scale" thing in the past. It's human nature. Just like not opening your bills when you don't have the money to pay them (done that too).

"Weight loss is so variable" - that is my thought as well. I guess it depends on how emotional we are about the number that pops up. A slight gain when eating and exercising has been going well can really send some off the deep end. It's a very personal decision whether to weight or not. We have to be in touch with its effects on us. Thanks for the comment. Take care.

Speaking from personal experience that many, many others corroborate...it is FAR TOO EASY to lie to ourselves and pretend we haven't gained weight (and I mean significant weight, 10-15 lbs. or even more; not the normal 3-5 lb. fluctuations of the human body) if we avoid the scale. These jeans are uncomfortably tight today...must have shrunk in the dryer...put them back in the closet and put on some stretch pants...the cycle begins. Denial is a very, very easy trap for me to fall into...the scale should not be an obsessive thing where one starves for three days because it showed a 0.7 lb gain this morning, but I think weighing in anywhere between once a day - once every three or four days keeps me in tune with my body and aware of how small changes in my eating habits or exercise affect my weight. There is also a difference between weighing in when we are actively losing (which is the fun and easy part of the process) and weighing in when we've been in maintenance for a while and can very easily get complacent and "excuse" too-frequent treat foods or days off from working out. All I can tell you is that when I was obese, I avoided clothes shopping, scales, cameras and full-length mirrors like the plague (and this is a very common them amongst everyone I know, online and in real life, who's been there). And for the last four fit and healthy years, I actively seek out all four of them. Keeping our heads in the sand gets us nowhere...it was the day I looked down and saw myself honestly that I changed the way I live.

Great points. Living in denial is very real for many obese people. A healthy relationship with the scale has contributed to your success I am sure. I have tried to fool myself in the past because the same size in different clothes can be so different - people marketing clothes have made a size 12 bigger than it used to be because women will buy more clothes if they fit into a smaller size. Facing what we have or have not done by weighing in can be an important motivation if we can control the emotions that go along with it. Be careful out there today.